Month: November 2010

Those that know me can attest to how strongly I vouch for Virgin America (@virginamerica) flights. I frequently go out of my way to ensure I fly Virgin America. Last Thursday’s flight, was somewhat of a disappointment compared to their normal excellent service.

I opted to upgrade to Main Cabin Select which is a bit pricey considering what you get but sometimes worth the upgrade fee. For those who haven’t flow Main Cabin Select you receive much more leg room, access to all their on-demand videos ($8.00 each), all the food, drink, alcohol you can possibly consume, priority boarding, and priority security access (my personal favorite).

I never buy my Main Cabin Select seat outright; I wait until I check-in to see how many of the seats are available. If I can snag an aisle seat and the middle seat is empty I’ll upgrade right before my flight. I think upgrades the day of tend to be a little bit cheaper. I usually pay $110 for my upgrade, but I can check my bag w/o any additional fees ($25 value) so my upgrade fee ends up being $85.

This flight experience left something to be desired. I’m sure my sub-par Virgin America experience would have beat any other airline I could have taken.

Items of concern

Hair found in sink

Consoles in row froze multiple times

Safety video was not played – old school demonstration, delayed departure time

Flight crew seemed disoriented and disorganized prior to take off

Excessive amount of pre-boarding for those who obviously did not need the extra time. As a Main Cabin Select passenger there were approximately 20 people on the plane when I boarded. One of the main reasons I upgrade is to be able to walk right to my seat. Today, I was 5 back waiting in the walkway to board the plane

Flight Crew Captain asked all passengers to refrain from using Google Maps on Red due to excessive unit freezing

Saving grace

Google’s free wifi made the flight more bearable

Luckily no one was in the middle seat (I normally take aisle)

That I upgraded to Main Cabin select (not really your saving grace as I paid a premium upgrade fee)

Amazing Red interactive environment (when it wasn’t frozen)

Satellite television at every seat

AC Power Plugs at every seat for your laptop, iPod and anything else you need power for

Things that added to my annoyance but out of their control

Crying babies

Turbulent flight

Consider offering a voucher for Main Cabin Select and First Class passengers for GoGo In-flight wifi.

I will admit that I am the one that decided to travel during Thanksgiving. Being away from family for most of Thanksgiving Day is bad enough. I don’t think I was asking much, I was just hoping for the normal Virgin America experience. Hopefully my return flight will fare better.

For the last few weeks I’ve been debating what I would do when I arrived at security. I’ll admit that I’m not a hard-core civil liberties activist and we need to be proactive to keep our skies safe. The discussions, blog posts, horror stories, news articles, and tweets about the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) procedures left me apprehensive.

There is something about the whole-body imaging that doesn’t sit right with me. Keep in mind TSA is using two types of whole-body imagine technology, Millimeter Wave and Backscatter technology. The latest uproar has been around Backscatter technology which uses “low intensity” radiation to create a detailed outline of your body. I prefer to limit my radiation exposure and am not yet to be sold on the “safe levels” the new whole-body imaging machines produce. It’s essentially a digital strip search and I feel there has to be a better way to ensure security.

On the other hand, I recognize that security procedures are always changing and in someone’s mind the TSA is doing what they can to keep everyone safe. Personally, I feel like every time TSA installs a new security procedure, it’s a reactive event. Maybe we just don’t hear about the security procedures that prevent incidents before they happen.

I arrived at the airport about 3 hours before my flight. The combination of Thanksgiving day, new security procedures, and whoknows what else I didn’t want to take a risk getting stuck in security. With that in mind, I upgraded my flight class, which allowed me to go through the premium security line (it’s that other entrance that’s always empty and puts you at the front of the line). It’s just a shame that there were only about a dozen people in line for security when I showed up. Minor failure on my part.

Now I’m a pragmatist, if I was running behind and thought I would miss my flight I likely would have given in to whole-body imaging. I wasn’t trying to be difficult, but I wanted to experience the hype about the new pat-down procedures. I had plenty of time to catch my flight, there was only one person in front of me that opted out. I told the TSA agent of my desire to opt out. I sense a little annoyance on his part as he tried to quickly describe what would happen in a distasteful way to persuade me to change my mind.

I told him I understood and he asked me to stand to the side. Over his radio he reported a male-opt out and requested an additional TSA agent for the pat down. The TSA agent came promptly (I waited about 2 mins) and I was asked to check my pockets one last time and step through the metal detector. He asked me to identify my items and repeatedly told me not to touch anything.

I sat down and as he was putting on the gloves he asked if I had this procedure before and then explained exactly what he would be doing. I told him I understood and stood up and faced the wall with my arms out. I’ll admit, I didn’t really care about the pat down; I’ve been gone through pat-downs before. Yes, this was the “enhanced pat-down” that was creating lots of controversy so I wanted to see what the “enhanced” part entailed.

So what did he do?

Ran hands up and down my legs and checked my inner thighs

Checked my inner belt line very thoroughly

Ran his hands over my back, chest, and stomach area

Very thoroughly checked my collar

Repeatedly told me not to touch anything

Aggressively told me not to touch anything when someone tried to hand me my phone that fell onto the conveyor belt (Side note: the other passenger who found my found was yelling at me like it was my fault. To which I wanted to say “Don’t look at me, the TSA agent grabbed my stuff from the conveyor belt”)

Overall, he acted very professionally about the pat down

What didn’t he do?

He didn’t grope me in the way a doctor would

He didn’t belittle me

He didn’t make any remarks or distasteful comments

He didn’t make me feel like he was doing anything inappropriate

What did I think?There were brief instances in which I felt apprehensive about the process but I never felt violated or treated less than humanely. I’m sure it’s wasn’t the highlight of his day either. I’ve read about the stories of other passengers feeling violated; the father who had to listen to the TSA agents making suggestive comments about his daughter, the passenger who had his urine bag expelled on himself, the woman who had her breasts groped and then bra snapped, and the list goes on. Obviously, these are valid complaints and I think these agents should be held dealt with accordingly.

My personal experience was not as intrusive or traumatic. My belief is that it largely depends on the TSA agent performing the enhanced pat down. I had the good fortune of having my enhanced pat-down performed by a very quiet yet professional TSA agent who at no point made me feel like I had done something wrong or that he was doing anything but his job.

What’s next?I have three more “dates” with TSA before the end of the year. It will be situation dependent, but if it’s not going to cause me to miss my flight (since I refuse to fly anything but @virginamerica my options for being re-booked are limited to slim) then I’ll consider going through the enhanced pat-down. I’ll be describing each of my “dates” with TSA in future posts.

Addendum: Before beginning the enhanced pat-down I was required to pass through a metal detector.